Hot! Hot! Hot!

WEATHER: Most of our rowers are in the centre of the high pressure system, which shifted south earlier in the week. Another hot breathless day is in store before the trade winds fill back in from the NE later in the afternoon.

Shortly after lunch the support yacht Galen Diana pulled into the port of San Diego and Tina Neill from Team Moana Uli stepped off onto land for the first time in just under two weeks. She was met by her husband and was taken to a local hospital for treatment of her shoulder injury. The Galen Diana will be heading back out to into the waters of the Pacific in the early hours of tomorrow to continue its mission of visiting crews during the race, helping where required and sending back some amazing photos and updates from the front line of the ultimate endurance challenge all the way to Hawaii.

With the lighter conditions, Todd Bliss and Rick Leach on board Row Aloha have added fishing to their daily tasks. They reported “all is ok, hand line back in – no fish yet.” Otherwise on board they continue to sort out their boat, they are drying clothes and other items in the calm heat and are even reportedly doing some laundry. “Hopefully we’ll go for another swim. Life is great.” It sure sounds like a pure and simple life on board with team Row Aloha.

Doing the laundry accidentally caused United Nations a minor issue in the last few days. The team had previously reported low voltages on their batteries indicating that they weren’t being charged enough by the solar panels. This is not completely unexpected during this early stage of the race where sunshine has been in short supply, but even when the sun did shine the batteries were taking much longer to recharge than expected. After a bit of diagnosis the crew realized their error. Drying clothes on top of the solar panels means that they weren’t capturing the sun that they need to be able to recharge the batteries. It seems so obvious from land but after two weeks of pushing themselves to the absolute limit the toll of rowing flat out for 12 hours a day is starting to show. However, it hasn’t started to show in terms of the crews’ pace as they continue to lead the way to Hawaii.

Sons Of the Pacific reported that they are “Bored and hot in a doldrum. We are hiding in the shade in the cabin right now until cooler hours.” While they wait, they are hoping that the wind will clock to the N/NE, which is thankfully what the wind is forecast to do. Hiding from the heat of the day is a great way to beat the heat but if it hasn’t done anything for their speed and this has allowed Row Aloha to simply cruise right past them as they rested. Louis and Erden have to take to the oars a little more often if they are to beat Row Aloha to Hawaii.

The ladies on board Fight The Kraken are also ‘enjoying’ the hot and humid conditions inside their cabin, likening them to a sauna. “Our pores are nice and clear! won’t hear us complain tho! we’ll take the heat over foul weather gear any day!” We are glad to hear that the ladies have turned the Pacific into their personal spa.

A little update from Race Headquarters. Moana Uli have given us a challenge for which we need your help. “Guess our new nicknames onboard,” read a text sent in yesterday. For your reference, on board we have Greg Vlasek (USA), Tim Spiteri (AUS) and Brian Conville (IRL). Their sign off read “Larry, Curly and Mo!” The only clue we were given was: “You should be able to work out the leader of the group.”

Post your most creative guesses, or your most humorous ones in the comments and we’ll send them off to the guys, to see who was right and to give the trio a good laugh.